I probably teased this one a little too early, but the big announcement from Humble and Fred has just been made on Breakfast Television.
Humble and Fred have signed a very cool distribution deal with Rogers. Humble and Fred will continue to podcast but will be promoted by Rogers as a 56th station of sorts. Here's a bit I stole from some pr document:
Rogers Radio now offers listeners free access to Humble and Fred Radio.com, available on 19 Rogers Radio websites – granting unrestricted access to the popular podcasts, 24 hours a day. With just the click of a button, fans can tune in and catch up with Humble and Fred on the following Rogers Radio station players: Jackfm.com, 1031Jackfm.com, Sportsnet960.ca, Jackfm.ca, Rock977.ca, Rock979.ca, Rock106.ca,92CitiFM.ca, Sportsnet590.ca, 1023bob.com, Chez106.com, 923Jackfm.com, KRock1057.ca, foxradio.ca, Q92Rocks.com, Q92Timmins.com, 680News.com, SONiC1029.com, and Rock1053.ca.
Also available on the exclusive Rogers Radio app, Humble and Fred Radio.com can be caught on-the-go with this all-access pass to their made in Canada podcasts. App users can browse by station, location or genre, connecting instantly with stations nationwide. At the tip of their fingers, listeners can check out recent playlists, request songs and directly link to station websites.
Aw heck, here's the whole press release.
(TORONTO – January 24, 2012) Rogers Radio today announced the debut of Humble and Fred Radio.com across 18 Rogers Radio websites and on mobile devices through the Rogers Radio app.
"We are thrilled to partner with Humble and Fred and are very excited and proud to be able to offer this unique, innovative show to our Rogers radio listeners." says Julie Adam, VP Programming. "It's like having a 56th station... it's just that this radio station lives solely in the digital space."
Humble and Fred Radio.com is an uncut, uncensored and irreverent podcast baked fresh daily and delivered to listeners around the world. “Humble” Howard Glassman and Fred Patterson offer up a variety of special guests, hot-topic discussions and very funny content.
“We’ve never had so much fun” says Patterson, “And to have Rogers recognize our efforts and want to give us access to their millions of listeners is flattering. Rogers vision of the future is very impressive.
“We’re very happy to be part of the Rogers Family” says Glassman, “In fact from now on we’re going to call Bob McCown dad, and Erin Davis can be our mom.”
There's more to it than just availability from Rogers digital property. There's also regular on-air bits with Bob McCown on Primetime Sports and a neat little thing with 680 News. But most importantly, this is the beginning of something bigger.
Not bad for a couple of guys rolling their own in Etobicoke.
Some of you are fans of Humble and Fred's podcast (now at 50 episodes!) and will be interested in this sweet slice of Humble and Fred news.
Humble and Fred have a major announcement to make with regards to a multi-media conglomerate. I've seen the agreement, and it's pretty awesome for a couple of guys who couldn't get a gig on terrestrial radio and decided to roll their own. I'm damn proud I get to help with the rolling and got in on the ground floor.
I'll let Humble and Fred unveil the specifics, something they intend to do in the next couple of weeks. Rest assured it doesn't mean the end of their podcasts, merely a new beginning, and they'll continue to own their content and do their own thing.
Feel free to guess what they'll be announcing. That's always fun.
I'm going to assume you've checked out Humble and Fred Radio, because I asked you so nicely several times. Humble and Fred have been podcasting daily for a couple of months now, and we're going to celebrate with a good old fashioned Humble and Fred Christmas special.
It will be recorded live at Wayne Gretzky's restaurant on December 21st and you're all invited. That's right, you just have to show up at 99 Blue Jays Way at about 5:30pm and you can hang with all of us. Musical guests include:
See Spot Run
Shawn Brady
Alexander Quail
Spencer Glassman
Peter Cugno (a.k.a. Scary Pete)
There will be live streaming on Gretzky's site and we'll post the podcast, as usual, at HumbleandFredRadio.com.
Humble and Fred received a letter from Corus Entertainment Inc. this morning. It was from one of Corus's "Trade-mark Agents" and it was to the attention of Howard Glassman and Fred Patterson at Humble and Fred Worldwide Studios.
I've seen the letter, in fact I have a copy, and here's what it says:
As you may know, Corus Radio Company owns the Canadian Trade-mark registration for HUMBLE AND FRED (Registration No. TMA501188) in connection with the following services:
"Entertainment services through operation of a radio station providing services including radio broadcasting; gathering, producing, programming and disseminating of music, news, information, public service messages and entertainment in all forms for radio; radio broadcasting services and related commentary and news broadcast on radio."
We understand that you have registered the domain name www.humbleandfred.com and have started your own internet show as of October 15, 2011.
In light of the fact that Corus owns the HUMBLE AND FRED trade-mark, we are writing to propose a Trade-mark assignment of the above noted registration to you. This assignment will transfer Corus' ownership of the registration to Humble and Fred Worldwide Studios. We request a payment of $5,000 in consideration of this assignment.
If the above is acceptable, please let us know. We will promptly prepare the Trade-mark assignment agreement for your review. The assignment, once finalized, will be submitted to the Canadian Trade-mark Office so that the change in ownership can be recorded.
Humble and Fred called this Trade-mark Agent, who has advised them that it's not a joke and they've owned the trade-mark since 1998. What's interesting to me is that Humble and Fred appeared on a rival station, Mix 99.9, for years using that name, and Corus seemed completely fine with it, but now that Humble and Fred are podcasting, it's no longer cool.
Corus Entertainment wants something for Humble and Fred's use of the name Humble and Fred, and they've named their price: a whopping $5,000.
I just listened to today's episode of Humble and Fred Radio. At about the 30 minute mark, between some typically hilarious banter and a great performance by 54-40, guest Fearless Fred from Edge 102 goes off on me. You have to hear this 5:27 of audio to believe it.
As I was listening to Fearless Fred, I really felt for him. He's clearly emotional and carrying a great deal of hate for this site and me. Of course, as with any interview, a great deal of context is missing. Before you decide to join Fearless Fred in hating me, please hear me out...
In May of 2009, Edge 102 fired a couple of very popular deejays. Of course I wrote about it, Martin Streek was fired after working at CFNY forever. I don't have to tell you what happened a couple of months later. Martin Streek hanged himself.
That was tragic, and in no way did I ever suggest Fearless Fred had anything to do with Martin Streek's suicide, but he was hired when Streek and Barry Taylor were fired, so I wrote about it.
I just re-read that entry, unedited since I first published it on August 8, 2009. I didn't write anything negative about him at all. I just broke the news he was coming from Edmonton and speculated as to where he'd be dropped in the lineup. That's it until I read something he wrote about me on a comedy blog. He went off on this blog because of some negative comments posted by readers. Fearless Fred, it seems, attributes the opinions expressed in the comments to me.
I only wrote about Fearless Fred one other time. I admitted I don't know shit about radio, because I didn't dig Fred's schtick and thought Barry Taylor had the same schtick, only funnier. I expressed my opinion, something I'm apt to do on this site. There were no personal attacks, and no lines crossed.
And that's my final point to Fearless Fred. I've never, ever written a single word about your wife or family. I never cross that line. I spoke about you as a radio host, a public figure, and merely commented on the situation at your radio station and your abilities as an on-air talent.
Fearless Fred really, really hates me, and that's a shame. I think Humble's right... I think we'd hit it off and like each other. It's just too bad Fred can't decipher between my words and actions and the opinions and actions of my readers.
It's a perfect storm of sorts. There is a plan for Humble and Fred, a future for the duo. No, I'm not about to announce they're the new morning show for < insert station here >, but they are on the brink of what I believe is a radio revolution.
Are you ready for Humble and Fred Radio?
We planned our attack over lunch, and shared the specifics with you all shortly thereafter. Humble and Fred were to record a show every weekday and share it with the world. That's where I came in.
Humble and Fred took care of the studio, perfecting the acoustics and setting up the mixing board and recording software. In other words, Humble and Fred were responsible for content and creating the .mp3 file each day, but I was responsible for ensuring the masses could easily access and hear that file. Here's how I did it....
The Savvy Will Subscribe
I wanted to take care of the savvy first. The savvy would want to subscribe to the podcast, via iTunes or an Android or Blackberry app. Luckily, there's an RSS 2.0 specification they all accept, although iTunes does recommend some additional iTunes-only tags. This RSS feed is an XML file, so I wrote one, made it easy to update via the CMS and taught Freddie P how to update it each day.
If you're listening to the podcasts, you know there was a delay getting Thursday's episode in there. That's because Fred put the date as Thur instead of Thu. That's how sensitive the XML file is, but everything was corrected and updated by Friday afternoon.
Speaking of the iTunes Store updating, that's one of the frustrations. iTunes reads our XML file to update their store on a schedule only known to them. So Fred might update the XML file at 1pm, but the iTunes Store might not update until 3pm. I've learnt there's nothing we can do to force this iTunes Store update. All we can do is update our XML file and ensure we're adhering to the RSS 2.0 standards.
The Less Savvy Just Want to Push Play and Listen
The XML file satisfies the savvy subscribers, but there are plenty of Humble and Fred fans who just want to click a play button and hear the show. I licensed a Wimpy MP3 player for this purpose, and it lives at http://www.humbleandfredradio.com/mp3player.html. After Fred updates the XML file that drives subscriptions, he updates this Wimpy player, dummy-proofed in the CMS, not that Fred is a dummy. In fact, as I learnt when we launched CanadianThinker.com, the man catches on quick!
The Wimpy player lets you list several episodes, so someone can just pick their episode from the list. By default, it auto-plays the most recent episode, but you can pause it and come back to it anytime. I'll often play episodes this way when I'm hacking away on the computer.
When All Else Fails
The XML file satisfies the subscribers and the Wimpy player satisfies most of the rest, but there needed to be one more catch-all that truly doesn't care what OS you're on, whether you can see Flash or not or what application you're going to use to play our MP3. I've been blogging 9 years because I love the format. Every entry gets a permalink that will never, ever change. That's the spirit behind this catch-all for sharing the Humble and Fred podcasts.
After every episode is recorded, converted to MP3 and uploaded to our coreFusion server, that episode is given its own blog entry on HumbleandFredRadio.com. This permalink always includes a link to the MP3 file, so even if you can't see Flash on your device you can always download or stream the audio. I've yet to encounter a set-up where this didn't ensure Humble and Fred got heard.
And that's how we do it. It's a three-prong approach, and I'm quite proud of the design. It's holding up very, very nicely, if I do say so myself.
I grew up listening to Humble and Fred on CFNY, and I've been trying to find a morning show I like as much since they left for Mojo Radio. I'm honoured and tickled pink to be a part of Humble and Fred Radio, because it's the show I've been searching for this past decade.
The boys are back, and if you haven't heard them yet, you really have no excuse. If you're listening, how do you access the audio? If you're not listening, why aren't you?
I realize there's been a lot of Humble and Fred Radio podcast content lately, but this project is only only a couple of weeks old and has already been one hulluva ride.
If you got your iTunes newsletter this month, you saw our little podcast featured alongside Susan Boyle and Deadwood. (insert joke here) Here's a screen cap.
And, the Humble and Fred Radio podcast is also featured on the main podcast page for iTunes. Here's how that looks. Click to embiggen.
Meanwhile, the boys have been all over the msm, appearing on Canada AM this morning and the new Global morning show last week. Not to mention Prime Time Sports and the Toronto Star... like I said, it's been a fun ride.
We've been recording the Humble and Fred podcast every weekday for a couple of weeks now, and it's been an experience like no other. The early results are encouraging, the content has been top notch and it's the most fun I've ever had with my clothes on. Yes, we keep our clothes on.
Today, while in iTunes, I was met with this "New & Noteworthy" section under "Comedy".
That was thrilling in its own right, but then, a little further down the comedy podcast page, I saw this...
As I type, iTunes is listing our Humble and Fred Radio podcast as the #4 bestselling podcast in the iTunes store. Number freakin' four... and climbing, I'm sure.
Humble and Fred, it's been a pleasure being a part of this. I thoroughly believe content is king, and you guys bring the content day in and day out. After that, I just have stitch a few bits and bytes to make sure you're heard.
Two weeks in, I'm more optimistic than ever that this will succeed. It's simply too good not to.
I was mic'd again for today's episode of Humble and Fred Radio. The guys have recorded four episodes thus far, and I've attended three of them. That gives me a pretty sweet perspective for this entry, a behind the scenes look at Humble and Fred Radio.
Firstly, it's pretty cool that the guys put me on mic and actually give me air time. I signed up to be the digital manager, the guy behind the site and audio access. If you've heard a podcast with me on it, you know I'm not professional radio talent. I'm still learning when to come in, when to stay quiet and how to not pop my p's.
I arrived at Redfish Entertainment Studios shortly before 10am. Humble and Fred were already in their studio, working on some technical issues. The line in to the board from Fred's laptop wasn't up to code, so re-cabling was in order.
There was a little pre-recording prep. We talked about newly signed up guests, how the chat with radio students at Corus went, and various aspects of our personal lives. The pre-recording chatter is probably more entertaining than the recorded chatter. Oh yeah, we also chatted about today's show, who's calling in and some general subject matter they wanted to cover.
At about 11am, we started recording. Everything is completely live to tape, so it all happens in real-time. The songs played, the bumpers, the bits... everything is recorded "live" so what we hear in the room is exactly what you hear on your iPod.
Sitting at Fred's old dining room table, in addition to Humble and Fred, was Mike Wixson and I. Mike was Mobile Mike, to those of you who remember the late 80s and early 90s at CFNY. Mike's also a great guy who runs Redfish Entertainment. All four us us are sitting in front of microphones and part of the opening segment.
What happens next is a conversation between two long-time pros and a couple of Mikes. It's effortless, it's funny and it's recorded. During a Moxy Früvous song, a call is made to another Mike from the Everything to do With Sex Show. Like everything else, the call is recorded live to tape.
An hour and change after we start recording, we wrap things up. At this point, Humble's job is to convert the recorded WAV file to MP3. While Humble's doing this on his Mac, Fred's updating an XML file I've configured for him and preparing the day's entry. I'm helping Humble, helping Fred, and starring in the day's promo video. You can see that below.
Humble then FTPs the MP3 to our web server and uploads that video of me to YouTube. Fred embeds the video into his entry, and publishes everything as soon as the FTP is complete. By 1pm, everything is online, and it's time for Mr. Sub.
While we chow down on subs, the boys promote the day's show via Facebook and Twitter. At 1:30, Wixson and I are in a business meeting and Humble and Fred are receiving an interesting call from Prime Time Sports. They're invited to join Bob McCown from 4pm to 4:20pm, a fantastic opportunity to make people aware of our new venture.
With my meeting over, I caught PTS on 590 at 4pm and heard Bob McCown speak very highly of Humble and Fred Radio. He said Humble and Fred fans from the past will learn about the new show, tune in and return for more. This traffic and buzz will inevitably attract sponsors and other opportunities, while Humble and Fred produce their own show without clocks and censors. Hearing this made me quite proud to be a part of this project.
Episode two was just posted at http://www.humbleandfredradio.com/. I'm in this one, and as a result, I haven't listened yet. I hate how I sound on the radio.
Besides, I'm far more interested in what you all think. Have you heard it yet? What did you think? Is it easy enough to access?
I probably teased this one a little too early, but the big announcement from Humble and Fred has just been made on Breakfast Television.
Entry Permalink
13 comments
I just listened to 
I realize there's been a lot of 
